Courtesy: FAI Futsal


Cork Youngsters lose out despite gallant display in UEFA Futsal Cup

Friday, 21 August 2009

The youngsters of Cork City are flying the Futsal flag for Ireland this week as they make their debut in the UEFA Futsal Cup in Varna Bulgaria. City as a club may have had a turbulent time in recent weeks but their youngsters put all that behind them and proudly represented the club in their opening UEFA tournament fixture against a very experienced semi pro futsal outfit, MFC Varna.
Unfortunately, the young rebel army took a little time to come to grips with the intensity and pace of the game against their vastly more experienced opponents. Small lapses in concentration early on were to prove costly for Stuart Ashton’s youngsters as despite creating a number of clear scoring opportunities in the first half, they found themselves 4-0 down at the break.

However, some outstanding performances particularly from Craig Duggan and Cathal Lordan ensured City remained a threat to their opponents throughout the second period. From the start of the second half, City decided to have a go and really test the Varna team. They continually carved out excellent chances and only some outstanding shot stopping from the Varna keeper, prevented the match from being a much closer affair.

If fitness, endeavour, enthusiasm and an abundance of individual technical skills were the positives for Cork, unfortunately, lapses in concentration and tactical inexperience were harshly punished by the clinical finishing of their Bulgarian hosts. Despite scoring three and missing a penalty, City conceded a final tally of eight goals.

It was by no means a poor display by the Cork lads but alas, in Futsal, things happen so quickly and so often that anything short of 100% physical and mental application allied to tactical astuteness is sure prove costly.

City Manager Stuart Ashton was upbeat despite the defeat and said:

"Futsal at this level is extremely tactical and intense both physically and mentally and it is a new challenge for many of my young players. From what I’ve seen so far, they will learn so much from this week and gain valuable experiences which will help their development not only as futsal players but as young footballers too. I was very pleased with how the lads continued to try and play despite the disappointment of conceding the goals and it paid off for them as they finished strongly with three cracking goals of their own! It’ll give us a lot more confidence going into the next two games”

The pick of City’s goals were a brace from man of the match Craig Duggan who already has some valuable futsal experience under his belt as part of the Republic of Ireland U21 and Senior Futsal team. Said Craig: “ I chatted to a few of our lads beforehand and tried to give them some idea of the type of players we’d be up against having played games against pro futsal players with the Irish team. However, there’s no substitute for gaining that experience yourself and I think the lads have learned a lot from their first game at this level. I think it will stand us in good stead for the remaining two games”.

Cork’s final two games are on Friday, August 21 against Moldovan Champions, Tornado Chisineau (5:30pm) and on Sunday, August 23 against Turkish Champions, Gazi Üniversitesi (5:30pm).







Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com